The Golden Boy Returns (The New Pioneers Book 5)

by Deborah Nam-Krane

  Charlie looked at his watch. "I’m going to give you three minutes for your ‘that would be so unprofessional’ song and dance, and then we need to talk specifics because I’ve got a big day tomorrow."

  "Screw you; you’re the one who told her to take the day off."

  "Because you were in danger of losing your cool. I have been waiting for you to blow for a couple of years now, but you need to not do it until after the election, okay?"

  "Fine," David allowed. "I wasn’t being fair to her—"

  "Because you think she’s cute! And she is. And she’s smart and a hard worker. She’s got a temper which makes her even hotter, and that makes you hotter for her. So before you explode from the sexual tension, why don’t we just dissipate it?"

  "Because of a little something called sexual harassment laws, okay?" David said in frustration. "What do you think is worse: a shouting match with an employee or the Herald publishing a story about my unwanted advances?"

  Charlie put up his hands. "Fine, but then you have to figure out a way to work with her so we can use her effectively."

  David scowled. "Okay, fine. Go away."

  Charlie patted David on the head. "Sure thing, Boss Guy."

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  "What happened?" Vijay asked as soon as he got home and found Kasi sitting in her pajamas in the living room.

  "David decided to shoot the messenger."

  Vijay made them tea while Kasi explained what happened. "Oh man, I'd be pretty pissed, too," Vijay said when she was done. "Cervino really forced him out of town? I thought that was just, I don’t know, Hwang being a baby."

  "It was all true," Kasi said, resigned. "But David shouldn't have said anything to the press because that's exactly the impression it gives without any proof."

  "And Cervino knew that," Vijay said slowly, "and he knew it would also make David look like someone who didn't really care about Boston. Wow," he said, sitting back. "Good play—if you're a ruthless son of a bitch. I thought I only had to deal with those at work."

  Kasi was confused. "Richard is...ruthless?"

  "Richard is one of the nicest people I've ever met, and I'm not even talking about Michael, who's just weird sometimes."

  "Emily?" Kasi asked with a smile.

  "Ha ha. I mean, yeah, she sort of is sometimes, but more with herself than anyone else. No, I'm talking about one of our former investors: Alex Sheldon."

  Kasi gasped. "He was an investor? That man is legendary in some circles—for being such a bastard."

  "You would know more than I would because I am too terrified to ask at work. All I know is that he was our primary investor in the beginning, but a few years ago Richard gave Alex every penny back, and Alex left the country. I have no idea what he did, but we ended up working out of Richard's house for a few weeks before Michael came on and put in his own money."

  "So Abbot replaced Sheldon?"

  Vijay shook his head. "No. He put in maybe half of what Alex had. Lucy and Jessie eventually put in even more, and Michael is making sure it's taken care of."

  "Sounds like a lot of trouble to get rid of one investor," Kasi said.

  Vijay tilted his head to the side. "All I know is that not only will I not ask Richard, I don't even want to say his name in front of Michael—or Miranda."

  "Why?"

  "Because Alex raised the both of them, and Miranda was involved with him for a little while."

  Kasi sat up. "'Involved'? Is that the word the kids are using now?"

  "It wasn't like that," Vijay said emphatically. "She'd had a crush on him for years, but they didn't start seeing each other until she was an adult, after her first marriage to Michael."

  "Her...what?"

  "It's a long story," Vijay sighed. "Sheldon’s a terrible person, but not that bad."

  "Well, there's something," Kasi said. "Because we had enough of that in our family. Tell me, how is Uncle Rajan?"

  "Don't start," Vijay said, not sternly but pityingly.

  "Sorry, all this talk about ruthless bastards makes me think of him."

  "You know I haven't spoken to him in a very long time," he said gently. "How would I know?"

  "Your parents do," she answered. "As do mine, of course, but I can't ask them."

  "Kasi," Vijay said gingerly, "nothing has changed."

  "So he continues to be a successful and well-respected member of our family and community and he goes home every night to his dutiful wife and children."

  "Yes," Vijay answered after a moment. "But Vishu is leaving for college soon."

  "Vishu," Kasi whispered. "You know, he used to be my favorite."

  Vijay patted her knee. "No, cousin. That was always me."

  She tried to smile but had to look away. "Why do you still speak to me?"

  "Because you were right," he said matter-of-factly. "And you shouldn't be punished for it."

  "Why do you still speak to them?"

  "Because it isn't my parents' fault that our uncle is a terrible person, and I disagree that making them admit he is will change him."

  "I never said it would change him," Kasi whispered. "I said that not saying anything let him get away with it."

  "Kasi," he said gently. "I speak to them because they still speak to me."

  A tear trickled down her face. "How are my parents?"

  He smiled. "Your mother looks like she's put on a little bit of weight."

  "Good, she's always been too thin."

  "And I think your father has started dyeing his hair. That or he's wearing a wig."

  Kasi giggled. "He is so vain! Always spent more time in the bathroom every morning than all of us combined." Her smile faded. "And how is Prasanthi?"

  "She misses her big sister," Vijay answered quietly.

  Kasi wiped her eyes. "Did you tell her that I missed her, too?"

  "Of course," Vijay answered. "And Kasi?"

  "Yes, cousin?"

  "She's warned all of her friends to stay away from Uncle."

  Kasi closed her eyes. "Good girl," she whispered.

  ~~~

  Kasi arrived at the office at six forty-five. David was already there, pacing. He stopped when she walked in.

  She didn't take off her jacket or sit down. "Are you seriously blaming me for the fact that you were blackballed by Cervino after the race?"

  "Of course not," he answered coolly. "But I don't want to feel like you're playing for some other team in a game I haven't been clued into."

  "David..." She sat down. "There all kinds of games being played, but I'm not a player. If I was ever going to be, I lost my chance when I walked out of Paloma's office." His face didn't change. "Someone likes to clue me into little bits and pieces when he wants an audience. What am I saying? He tells me things when he wants applause."

  "Are they expecting anyone to congratulate them for running someone out of town?" David asked in disgust.

  "No," she answered. "They're expecting people to congratulate them on being so powerful and—mostly—using their power well. What happened to you was also supposed to be a warning to anyone who got too ambitious before, well, before it’s their turn."

  "Then allow me to meet this guy so I can clap my hands for him. Who better to appreciate what they did than me?"

  Kasi locked eyes with David and froze in her chair. "You know it doesn't work like that."

  David’s stare intensified. "What I know is that if I'm part of someone's big picture, I deserve to see what that picture looks like. And this is not a request. Tell your source that if I don't get to meet him, you're fired."

  Kasi’s eyes flashed. "Are you serious?"

  David suddenly smirked. "No, but as far as this person is concerned, I am. They obviously want to know what I'm doing, and that will be harder if you're not here."

  She stood up. "How dare you? I have been busting my ass for you and Charlie, and now you're implying that I'm feeding information to Cervino? I haven't told anyone outside of this office anything that they couldn't
pick up from reading the newspaper, and certainly nothing that Cervino's street workers couldn't have found out."

  "Stop being indignant for two minutes and think about it," he snapped. "You think they are much more useful to us than we are to them, but you're useful to them too. Because they have to have trusted sources to confirm what they could figure out." He put his hands on the desk and leaned forward. "It's all part of the bigger picture."

  "I thought—" she started to say, but realized she would sound stupid. "Okay," she said instead. "But I honestly don't know what he's going to do."

  David looked relieved. "How should we play this?"

  "Don't say anything to Charlie—until after. And we'll wait until eight-thirty before I leave in a big huff."

  "Why?"

  "Street workers aren't walking out of the diners until right then." She opened her hands. "If we're going to do it, let's sell it."

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  "Here?" he asked when he saw Kasi that evening. "The Children's Museum?"

  Kasi leaned against the railing and inhaled. "What can I say? I'd like to enjoy Boston's very brief good weather, and you could use an excuse not to drink."

  He joined her at the railing and pointed across the harbor. "There is literally a bar right there."

  "Then the extra exercise before you get it wouldn't hurt you."

  He turned his head. "Should I be flattered that you're so concerned about my health?"

  She moved her hair out of her face, aware that he was watching her. "We're friends."

  "Why did you want to meet here?"

  "Because it's private—no walls to overhear us." She steeled herself and hoped he couldn't tell. "Hwang knows he was blackballed, and he's pissed."

  "That's it? He didn't figure that out before?"

  "I told him it was true, and then he and Charlie ran down a rabbit hole and decided that Cervino called the mayor of New York to help him get the job."

  He stiffened. "That is complete conjecture on your part."

  "You mean their part, because I'd rather not know." She gripped the rail tightly. "The point is, he's pissed, and he threatened to fire me unless he meets you."

  He looked at her as if she'd spoken in another language. "What?"

  "He thinks I'm feeding information to you," she said, shaking her head. "He's losing it."

  He took a step toward her. "Does he know who I am?"

  She didn't move. "Of course not. That's why he told me he wants to meet you because I won't tell him."

  "Or else?"

  "Or else," she repeated, nodding her head with each word. "He's going to find another field director because I'm not the only one who knows how to do this job."

  "And he's not the only one running. What are we up to now, a dozen? I lost track today."

  She rolled her eyes. "And we both know that half of them aren't qualified, and of the other half four of them have so much dirt on them the Globe and Herald are just spacing out the reveals. So it's really between Nelson and Hwang, and Nelson's organization is sewn up—and even if it weren't, I'm not interested."

  "Didn't I tell you never to drink the Kool Aid you helped mix?"

  She pretended she wasn’t irritated by the condescension. "Nelson's a hack who hasn't pretended to have an original idea since he got into college, and the old ones he's rehashing aren't going to help him in this race. It's not going to matter who his father, grandfather or great-grandfather was."

  "Do not discount him; he is good on his feet in front of a camera. Hwang cannot say the same thing."

  She was being baited. "I have a feeling that's not going to be my problem."

  "You think he's serious about firing you?"

  "I don't know," she said after a moment. "He might not be three days from now, but right now he and Charlie don't want to look at me."

  He raised an eyebrow. "Even though you had nothing to do with it?"

  "Guilt by association," she said.

  "And what will you do if he does fire you?"

  "I don't think I can go back to Macy's. Vijay might have been able to find me a job at his company, but considering that it's owned by Lucy Bartolome's son and his wife and her best friend are the ones who sort of got Hwang into the race, that might not be possible." She shrugged. "There's always waitressing."

  "He'd be an idiot to fire you. You should quit and give him time to come to his senses."

  "Like I said, I'm not the only one who can do this job. Charlie will have hired someone before David could do that."

  He raised an eyebrow. "Okay," he said.

  "You'll meet with him?" she asked.

  "Absolutely not, and do not tell him who I am. But I'll give you something much better."

  "What could be better?"

  He smirked. "The disk drive he and Donnelly wanted so badly the last time."

  ~~~

  Kasi had sent David a text as soon as she'd left the Children's Museum. He called her thirty seconds later. "Are you joking?"

  "I am outside in public. We are not having this discussion until I get home."

  "Screw that. Get in a cab and get to the office now."

  When she was in the cab she sent Vijay a text.

  That kind of data recovery is going to be very difficult, Vijay replied. I've got to ask Richard's opinion.

  Can he keep this to himself?

  You have no idea.

  She stopped David and Charlie before they could say anything. "Grab your stuff, gentleman. We'll talk about it at Richard Hendrickson's house."

  "You told him?" Charlie exclaimed.

  "No, I told my cousin. He told Richard."

  "Have you lost—"

  David put up his hand. "It's alright, Charlie. We can trust him."

  Vijay, Emily, Zainab and Richard were in the living room when they arrived. Zainab got up to hug David. "Wouldn't running for Congress have been a little less dramatic?" she asked.

  Ten minutes later Richard and David seemed to be silently communicating while everyone else was shouting over each other. David caught Kasi looking at him and smiled. In spite of herself, she smiled back.

  "Alright everyone, that's enough," Richard said. He didn't have a particularly deep or loud voice, but everyone stopped talking. "Let's back up. This is the hard drive with the double-deleted information?"

  Kasi nodded. "That was the subject of a Freedom of Information Act request."

  Richard nodded. "And what are you expecting to find?"

  "That's an excellent question," David interjected. "All I know is that they didn't start playing hide-and-seek with it until the Globe asked for it as part of their investigation into the Charles-Williams investigation."

  "Whatever is on that," Charlie said, "was worth hiding."

  "And the man made it a habit of deleting his emails and then clearing out his recycling bin every night?" Richard asked. "Isn't that against the law when you're a public official?"

  Emily frowned. "How hard would it be to prevent a computer from doing that?"

  Vijay scoffed. "Not hard at all."

  "Most of the computers at City Hall are set just like that," Kasi said. "This computer was one of the exceptions."

  Richard rubbed his face. "And we know the approximate time period we're concerned with?" David nodded. "It's doable—"

  "Then let's do it," Emily said.

  Richard closed his eyes wearily. "In an ideal world. But these things are never ideal. There is going to be some unrecoverable corruption, and for all we know, exactly in what we're looking for."

  Zainab cocked her head to the side. "So let's hire some computer science grad students to help."

  "It's not going to be that simple. We can't get one from the university."

  Vijay looked confused. "Why not? They've got the best program in Boston, and someone's going to need the work."

  "My mother is on the board of trustees and she's one of the sponsors of David's scholars program. Is that correct?" he asked David, who nodded in reply. "
There's going to be an appearance of impropriety if we use any of their resources."

  "So let's hire someone who just graduated," Charlie said.

  "And then we're talking about more money."

  Emily looked from David to Richard. "So, um, Richard, have you donated to David's campaign yet?"

  "It’s not that simple," Richard said. "There's a legal limit to how much I can donate as an individual, and even to what I can donate as a corporation."

  Emily blinked. "You couldn't do it for free?"

  "Legally, if I do any work for them, I have to declare it as a campaign contribution."

  Emily slumped back. "Got it."

  "How much work can be done for the legal limit?" Zainab asked her husband.

  "I think we could probably justify ten hours of work."

  Kasi closed her eyes. "Damn it. And that's why this is such a great gift from them: we can't do anything with it."

  "Mm," Emily murmured. "Mitch hasn't made a donation yet, and I don't know if you got Jessie and Martin. Or Michael." She looked at Vijay. "And did you or Carlos or Jordan?"

  Richard chuckled. "Okay, but they'd have to make their 'donation' after hours, because if they did it on company time it could still be construed as a contribution of mine."

  "And if you buy us dinner while we do this, do we have to report that too?" Vijay asked.

  Emily nudged him with her shoulder. "We'll figure something out."

  Charlie nodded his chin toward Richard. "When can we get started?"

  Richard looked at Zainab. "You didn't want to do anything this weekend, did you?"

  She frowned. "There's always my textbooks to keep me company."

  "Um, hello?" Kasi waved her hands. "I still need to get the hard drive. Don't make plans before I do."

  "When can you get it?" David asked, looking like he was trying not to jump out of his skin.

  "As soon as he'll give it to me."

  "Do we get to guess who this is?" Charlie asked.

  "Please don't waste your time," Kasi said as she started texting.

  ~~~

  Kasi was in the shoe section of Marshall's the next day, pretending to look at a pair of sneakers. She felt someone stand next to her but didn't look up.

  "Actually, I think those brown pumps on the next shelf would suit you better."